The Road to Rangoon

In 1980s Burma, the British ambassador’s son goes missing. Discovering himself in the north of the country, Michael Atwood is in imminent danger, trapped between sides fighting a bitter civil war and with no way back to Rangoon. His best hope of salvation is to trust Thuza, a ruby smuggler who offers to help him escape. Beautiful and deeply scarred, Thuza has spent her entire life in a frontier town between rebel and government forces, never choosing a side but trying to make a living from both. For Thuza, the ambassador’s son is her ticket out of poverty. For Than, an ambitious military officer, exploiting those caught in the war offers an opportunity for promotion and distinction. But as all three learn to their cost, in this enigmatic and savage country, everyone has a price. From the heart of Burma’s exotic Rubyland comes an emotional thriller, as three lives are thrown together by the desperate choices they make to survive in a country gripped by civil war: a tale of ambition, salvation and hope that confirms Lucy Cruickshanks as a master storyteller.